Purpose: The implementation and control processes of project planning and scheduling involve a wide range of methods and tools. Despite the development and modification and integration of the project management theory with newer scheduling approaches in particular, practitioners’ views on the efficiency and effectiveness of these methods and tools differ. This situation can be attributed in part to a lack of understanding of the most appropriate basis for implementing these methods and tools. This study, therefore, aims to overcome this deficiency by conceptualizing and adopting a taxonomy of planning and scheduling methods.

Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on a review and discourse analysis of the literature covering a large number of theoretical and empirical studies. The underlying theories of various planning and scheduling methods were analyzed with respect to the taxonomy criteria adopted in the study.

Findings: Using the taxonomy, the key characteristics of planning and scheduling methods considered in this study were identified and interpreted. These included concepts and theories; key features; suitability and usability; and benefits and limitations. Overall, the findings suggest that project managers should consider taxonomy as a support tool for selecting and prioritizing the most appropriate method or combination of methods for managing their projects. Recommendations include the need for more advanced or multi-dimensional taxonomies to cope with the diversity of project type and size.

Originality/value: The results of the study allow project managers to improve their current practices by utilizing taxonomy when considering the implementation of planning and scheduling methods. Moreover, taxonomy can be considered as a tool to promote learning on the part of those less experienced in planning and scheduling. Taxonomy can be considered as an initial platform for further research in this area. © 2016, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

The construction industry has of recent been blamed for lack of innovation. Lack of innovation in the industry is believed to be responsible for the decreasing or stagnant levels of productivity in comparison with other industries. This paper reviews the major barriers and enables to innovation in general. Propositions were made about the factors that affect innovation in the construction industry which were then formulated into a questionnaire. A survey was made on building contractors in Uganda, a developing country, targeting those with financial strength, large in size, and with high capacity to carry out big projects. The identified factors were then ranked and correlated. The level of training in science, engineering and technical education, and the level of research and development at the industry level are looked at as the greatest innovation enablers in building that will drive forward labour productivity. The size of the domestic market and the level of security are the worst innovation barriers that lead to low productivity in the building industry in Uganda. Contractors, policy makers and the government should address the identified factors in order to improve productivity.

Planning and scheduling are considered as one of the most difficult but most important processes from perspectives of project management. These processes involve implementation of a widerange of planning methods used by different organizations with various levels of planning knowledge. The planning methods for scheduling can be classified as traditional methods (e.g. line of balance, Gantt chart and critical path) and modern methods (e.g. last planner and critical chain). Over time these methods had advanced from paper based to computer based. However, some project planners still prefer using the traditional methods despite other new alternatives. Users of those methods have different perspectives about the efficiency and effectiveness of the different planning methods used to manage different projects. Evidences from the secondary data found from extensive literatures have been used to assess the planning and scheduling methods mentioned above. A taxonomy describing each of the method in terms of their theories, key features, application areas, benefits and limitations is presented. The preliminary outcome of this paper may provide a tool to aid organizations in selecting and prioritizing the most appropriate methods to be developed and implemented in planning and scheduling of their projects. It also initializes a theoretical base for more rapid taxonomy studies on the use of different planning and scheduling approaches. As an overall, the present paper reminds practitioners of common ground about its important insights on how such taxonomy studies have potential to make scope of those methods and tools clearer, especially when they compare among them within the same application contexts.

Recent studies depict the general need to increase and improve innovation in the construction industry. Innovation processes are traditionally described and analysed either on a macro level or a micro level. Production in construction is basically project oriented, as opposed to manufacturing industries for which most of these theories are developed. It is not fully sufficient to study innovation from a micro or a macro level due to the effects of the project orientation and the large number of actors in the construction industry. The objective of this paper is to present a model of the construction innovation systems from a sector systems approach. The study rests upon findings in the area of innovation systems in general and construction innovation systems in particular on one hand and construction sector systems analysis on the other. This paper presents arguments for the development of activity based innovation systems at a construction sector level.

This report summarises the work undertaken in the CREDIT project and proposals for how to implement the CREDIT framework. It is the final part of the Nordic/Baltic project CREDIT: Construction and Real Estate – Developing Indicators for Transparency. The report presents the objectives and the research model for CREDIT followed by a summary of the results of CREDIT Reports 2, 3, 4 and 5. The conclusive part of the report presents national recommendations of how to implement the CREDIT framework in the Nordic/Baltic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Estonia and Lithuania.

Collaborative approaches to infrastructure procurement are increasingly popular around the world due to their potential to provide improved project performance compared with more traditional approaches. The problem is that project outcomes continue to be unpredictable. Previous research has shown that this is the case regardless of whether the chosen procurement approach is based on price or non price selection of the project team. This is a major choice that clients make, but the presented research shows that governance choices for project execution are more important. This is significant because clients tend to focus more on procurement choices and typically do not differentiate governance based on those choices. This needs to change, and the authors show that optimal governance configurations vary on the basis of the chosen type of team configuration. For example, three specific governance arrangements for workshops are highlighted for single teams, and two specific governance arrangements for risk/reward sharing are highlighted for multiple teams. This study identifies governance actions that are associated with superior time and cost outcomes on collaborative infrastructure projects in Australia run by experienced public-sector clients under the two procurement scenarios. Based on a survey of 320 senior managers, independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the application of governance actions among three distinct groups of projects, based on type of team selection and type of project outcome. The study provides evidence of the most effective approaches to project governance in a country that is a world leader. The results provide much needed recommendations for improved project performance based on large-scale quantitative analysis, which before now has not existed. Overall, the study recommends more attention be paid to noncontractual governance under both approaches to team selection, although the specific actions recommended vary. © 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.

There is a strong need for a productive and innovative infrastructure sector because of its monetary value and importance for the development of a sustainable society. An increased level of industrialization is often proposed as a way to improve efficiency and productivity in construction projects. In prior literature on industrialized construction, there are however neither many studies addressing more long-term aspects of innovation and sustainability nor studies within the infrastructure context. Organizational theory suggests that firms need to be ambidextrous and focus on both long-term exploration of new knowledge and Technologies and short-term exploitation of current knowledge and technologies, in order to achieve sustainable development. Therefore, an investigation of how both short-term exploitative performance objectives and long-term explorative development can be addressed when implementing industrialized construction in infrastructure projects was conducted. A case study consisting of four infrastructure projects shows that the main drivers for increased industrialization are of an exploitative nature, focusing on cost savings and increased productivity through more efficient processes. The main barriers to increased industrialization are however related to both explorative and exploitative activities. Hence, by managing the identified barriers and explicitly addressing both exploitation and exploration, industrialized construction can improve both short-term efficiency and long-term innovation and sustainability. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

The Construction Process Forum was initiated by the Construction Council. The Construction Council is an organisation which supports cooperation between universities and the construction industry. The Construction Process Forum was formed through that chosen key persons were asked to come up with suggestions on how to create a more effective construction process plus how to improve the image of construction. The aim was also to increase the awareness among the participants of Construction Process Forum. This report narrates the result of one years work within the Construction Process Forum. The focus of this first year was the construction site and the changes needed of the construction process to create better conditions for the construction site. The Construction Process Forum ended with the formulation of a plan of action for the development of construction.

In this report a generic model for the capture and assessment of end-user requirements and needs, the CREDIT carpenter model, has been developed. The main determinants of the model is the need for the project organisation (including the facilities management organisation) to ensure a thorough understanding of the end-user requirements and needs as well as an assessment through out the project process. The end-users and the project organisation are often working in two different value chains. This, among other things, means that they may not share a common understanding of the process. Apart from just assessing to what extent the requirements and needs has been achieved it is important to assess the process of accomplishing the desired result. This way it is possible to learn from what has worked well and what has not. There is some variation in what and how it is being assessed depending on what type of building it is. Assessments on housing are more inclined to focus on softer aspects, for example perception etc. In the other cases there are, generally, a more technical perspective. It may be an affect of how knowledgeable the users are. In regard to housing the users have possible less experience of construction and communicating their needs than in the case of offices etc. There is also a notable difference between approaches and interest on what to assess in the different countries. Sweden has a much more soft approach and an ambition of getting as many as possible to understand what is being assessed and for what reasons while Finland has a much more technical and measurable approach. The clients, naturally, play a large part in the construction process, also when it come to capturing and transferring the requirements and needs of the end-users. It is mainly the clients that initiate it. Maybe more surprisingly, they do perform a lot of the work themselves as well. Designers play an important role as do known end-users as well. During the project it is mainly the client that initiates the assessments, but the actors of the project process, designers and producers that perform it. Evaluating the degree of fulfilling the requirements and needs as well as assessing the process to enable learning is again mainly a client action both initiating and performing, the rest of the actors do not engage to any larger degree. The processes from begin of the brief to the end of construction have well developed routines as a part of the project management system. These routines are good enough to successfully fulfil the studied project and the control of the process in order to get internal efficiency in the short run perspective. But there is almost no case that shows any assessment tool that support feedback, the knowledge development and the innovation process which is important in the long-run perspective. The missing feedback is marked in the carpenter model. Found in the study there are two examples of tools that together may to some extent overrun this issue. Building Information Models have the potential of acting as an information carrier within a project, storing all types of information needed for assessing a number of different aspects. The main issue is to get the right information and presenting it in a way suitable for the target group. This is done in the case of Falk in Skanska (in Norway). It is a system gathering and presenting a multitude of KPIs, from a number of different systems, in an easy to understand layout.

Work environment problems associated with reinforcement work at constructions sites are often great and difficult. This applies especially to the ergonomic situation. The situation is particularly difficult in connection with reinforcement in horizontal structural elements such as slabs and foundation slabs on the ground, where several of the most difficult load factors occur. Since about 15 years there is an innovation (rollout bar carpets) available on the Swedish market. This innovation can many times be used at these structural elements and gives both time savings and working environmental benefits. Despite this the innovation has been and is adopted rather seldom. The reasons for this have been studied through semi structured interviews with with design-engineers, site-managers, workers and persons working at a reinforcement manufacturing company. The main results from the study are as follows: i) Rollout bar carpets have a potential of improving both work environment and time consumption on site. However, this may not be enough in itself to achieve a general adoption of the technology. ii) The implementation and adoption of innovations in construction may be more complex than the novelty of the innovation may suggest. This is due to the contextual delimitations of a project-based industry and the different roles in the construction process.

The purpose of the study is to describe and analyse, from an innovation diffusion perspective, factors important when using demonstration projects as a tool for introduction of sustainable low cost housing. The study is focused on Ethiopia, a country with big challenges as regards population increase, lack of resources, deforestation, land erosion and a general need for better and sustainable housing, especially in rural areas. The study is furthermore focused on the adobe technology as a more sustainable alternative to the traditional building technology which is very timber consuming. Many attempts have been made to introduce this technology with the use of demonstration buildings. A great part of these attempts have failed, some have been successful. In order to study and discuss important factors in connection with the use of demonstration buildings, a project executed some years ago in southern Ethiopia has been analysed. The study is based on findings collected during and after the erection of these buildings mainly through practical tests, interviews and observations. From a technical point of view this demonstration project was successful. It was possible to develop an appropriate production technology and the result was buildings with a good standard and good function. Experiences up to now indicate a good durability. From an innovation diffusion perspective however the demonstration buildings have not fulfilled their purpose. The impact in the region seems to be very small. The conclusion in the paper is that the reasons behind this failure mainly are: (1) Lack of clear and visible relative advantage in comparison to the traditional building technology. The supply of construction timber in the area in question is still good. (2) Lack of a champion advocating the technology by using the demonstration buildings and thereby giving the message to the society that the technology is valuable and trustworthy. (3) Lack of continuity in the demonstration efforts, as a result of the lack of a champion.

As many developing countries, Ethiopia is facing a lot of problems. A high population growth and erosion caused by deforestation can be considered the most serious one. The need for housing is increasing while deforestation causes a lack of sustainable and appropriate timber for construction. A challenge facing the Ethiopian society is thus to give a growing population opportunities to obtain decent, sustainable and affordable housing. One way to achieve this is to use adobe technology, which means that houses are built with sun-dried clay blocks. Used correctly, the adobe technology has many benefits. The main advantages are that the technique is relatively simple, local materials can be used and that timber demand is low. Because of this, the technology also has many advantages from a sustain ability perspective. In Ethiopia, most attempts with the adobe technology have been less successful without lasting impacts. In this paper, the reasons for this are discussed. Six cases where adobe has been used are described an analysed. Many factors have been identified as being important for the diffusion of the technology, i.e., a strong champion, market and risk factors, cultural factors creating stigma and basic training. © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Whilst Building Information Modelling (BIM) promises significant improvements in construction quality and efficiency, current contractual models do not encourage its use; indeed actively inhibit the collaboration at its core. To help bring BIM into the mainstream, it is claimed we need to re-craft existing contractual relationships to facilitate collaborative decision making and to equitably allocate responsibility among construction participants. This chapter looks at the case of Sweden and aims to identify and appraise observed hindrances to BIM collaboration and digital information stewardship. It presents an understanding of the connections between the commercial environment and contractual provisions that regulate the party’s business relationships and the resultant procedural and behavioural phenomena that can be viewed to thwart BIM collaboration and degrade the value or integrity of digital deliverables. The study then, in a more general context, asks what we can learn here that may have wider application through consideration of suitable BIM collaboration support mechanisms that may reduce or remove collaboration barriers, induce open, sharing behaviours and support the creators and users of digital information. Methods employed include a critical review of existing contract forms, synthesized with focus group interviews (FGIs) with representatives from diverse AEC disciplines. Results indicate that a number of systemic difficulties exist that can create an inertia which can be traced through behaviours and circumstances to contractual provisions. An understanding of such difficulties is presented and a consensus emerges on a number of key supporting mechanisms that may better facilitate meaningful early BIM collaboration and oil the wheels of communication without recourse to re-writing the rule-book.

This report summarizes findings and recommendations from 24 case studies from seven participating countries addressing performance indicator benchmarking at a sectoral, national or international scale. Their distribution in scope is: – benchmarking systems and indicators (4 case studies) – offices (7 case studies) – housing (6 case studies) – school and nursery (4 case studies) – shopping centres (3 case studies). In addition, actual performance benchmarking was done between six Finnish and Norwegian office buildings using CREDIT Key Performance Indicators and a web-based benchmarking tool, developed in CREDIT for that purpose. Some good benchmarking practices exist already at a national and international level. They focus on process issues, investment aspects and environmental properties. These existing schemes contribute to the CREDIT framework, but don't cover well the performance dimension. There isn't yet any commonly agreed European Key Performance Indicator system, or building and real estate performance indicator standard. CREDIT made a contribution to their development from the Nordic/Baltic perspective. It also provided valuable input from the performance and social sustainability point of view to existing economic and environmental oriented schemes that are continuously updated and amended. CREDIT made progress in performance indicator framework and actual performance indicators and tools, some of which were already tested in the case studies. Understanding on existing benchmarking schemes is also improved. The results of CREDIT WP6 performance indicator benchmarking at a sectoral, national or international scale can be exploited in number of ways, such as – the front runner companies adopt the core performance indicators in their practices and influence in forming their use a sector based practice – further development of standardization, tool development (IFCs), benchmarking schemes and rating systems makes use of the results.

This is the final report for the project, "Optimization of solar energy through smart microgrids and users", that has been carried out by the municipal housing company Eksta Bostads AB (hereafter referred to as Eksta) between 2020 and 2022. The project has been partially financed by the Energy Agency and is a continuation of a pilot project which was completed in 2019 (Penttilä et al., 2019). The background to the project is Eksta's interest in investigating opportunities to develop energy concepts for its building stock. The purpose of this project has been to evaluate alternatives and methods to increase profitability in solar photovoltaic systems in the built environment. To do so, an expansion of an existing microgrid has been installed and a model for user involvement has been created. The model is based on the Blockchain concept and is developed for the area of the microgrid and Eksta's management of electricity distribution and user management. Eksta sees great value in the implementation of this project. Knowledge has been built in the management of sharing of electricity, both regarding strategic planning of energy distribution and technical solutions. During the installation and commissioning of the microgrid, challenges linked to hardware and software have affected the installation and operation of the microgrid in Fjärås. Incorrect functions were at the end of this project not yet resolved. For these reasons, the technical evaluation of the microgrid has been limited. However, the results show that the self-use rate for produced solar electricity within the microgrid is 87 % for a period of three months. This is slightly lower than the theoretically calculated value for the same months, which was 98 %. The reason for this result is the shortcomings of the system's components. However, the evaluation shows that there is a potential for increasing this value. This project has also contributed to more results, where knowledge about the process for development projects has been built. Lessons learned have been that it is of great importance to coordinate all project partners before the start of a development project so that there is a consensus around the project's goals and an established collaboration. Within the project, the potential to expand the existing microgrid with more solar photovoltaic systems and the possibility of incorporating more buildings and charging stations for electric vehicles has been evaluated. Results show that there is potential to install more solar power with continued high self-use and thus maintained profitability.

Purpose - The aim of this research is to study knowledge integration (KI) when diffusing a systemic innovation. The objectives are to understand what mechanisms are used, and when and what their effects are in terms of knowledge development.

Design/Methodology/Approach - The method comprised a longitudinal case study which followed a firm’s attempts to develop and diffuse a timber multi-storey building system (the systemic innovation) over a number of projects.

Findings - The findings emphasize actual projects as the most crucial activity for KI and when and why soft personalization mechanisms and codified knowledge should be mixed.  Furthermore, it shows how different types of knowledge is built up including construction process effects over a series of projects.

Research limitations/implications -  The research contributes with knowledge about mechanisms for the diffusion of a specific systemic innovation type and provides input regarding mechanisms to use. The introduction of the concepts ‘domain-specific’, ‘procedural’ and ‘general knowledge’ into construction has increased understanding of innovation diffusion and knowledge flows and where and how they are integrated.

Practical Implications – The research shows how knowledge develops and through which mechanisms, and where problems occur. Construction organisations can learn from this to avoid mistakes and potentially better understand how to manage knowledge to diffuse a systemic innovation.

Originality/value - The research provides insight into systemic innovation diffusion over a series of projects and focuses on both projects and the construction process. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has for a number of years been seen as a systemic inter-organizational innovation that will have great impact on the efficiency of the construction process as a whole. In this study both successful and unsuccessful attempts to diffuse a BIM-service in the construction sector by a building material manufacturer has been studied through multiple data collection methods. Of special interest has been in what ways knowledge has been integrated, i.e. what mechanisms has been used in the case, since it is a key area for diffusion, and this is described and discussed.  Furthermore, the contextual characteristics of the construction sector have been highlighted as influential on diffusion, especially when it comes to areas such as learning, flow of knowledge and feedback loops. Therefore, the context of the different cases and in what ways this affects the knowledge integration process is also described and discussed.

Building Information Management (BIM) is a systemic inter-organizational innovation predicted to have a great impact on the efficiency of the construction process. An enabler for its diffusion is knowledge integration (KI). This research investigates KI mechanisms used by a Concrete Reinforcement Supplier and its customers in the diffusion of BIM and BIM-related solutions. The research employs a qualitative approach with multiple data-collection methods at two different points in time. BIM diffusion and KI are viewed here as emergent and iterative processes, understood from a supplier perspective. The research examines the interaction between context, content of the diffusing innovation and the diffusion process. Knowledge development from the KI process has been assessed by exploring the interaction between (1) domain-specific knowledge, (2) procedural knowledge and (3) general knowledge, complementing the established emphasis on tacit and explicit knowledge found in relevant construction management research. The findings indicate that general knowledge needs to be high for increased BIM diffusion and the research raises the need to develop procedural knowledge both from a practical and research perspective. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Purpose – This study aims to focus on a reinforcement supplier’s efforts to diffuse solutions, more or less innovative, in the construction sector to gain understanding of what facilitates and complicates innovation diffusion from a supplier perspective.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The interpretative research presented builds on 28 semi-structured interviews with the supplier and its customers and document studies. The research emphasizes dynamics in the diffusion process and rests on the assumption that the innovation content, innovation context and the innovation process interacts in the diffusion process.

Findings – The findings and the contribution from the study provide significant details concerning how the dimensions interact and how the diffusion process may unfold over time, but also that different solutions interact to push diffusion forward.

Research Limitations/Implications – The study relates to one supplier’s work and the interplay implies uniqueness in different cases. Studies in other contexts could, therefore, also be suitable to develop findings and their transferability.

Practical Implications – The study provides understanding for suppliers diffusing innovations in construction on how to act.

Originality/Value – A major contribution from the study is that it puts emphasis on how the diffusion process proceeds in interaction with its content and context and problematizes this dimension. Furthermore, the importance of nuancing sub-contexts to display decisive factors in the diffusion process is emphasized. © John Lindgren and Kristian Widén.

All member countries in the EU must follow the given directive for public procurement that has been decided upon. The purpose of the directive is to ensure a sufficient public procurement and a sound use of public resources. However, knowledge about the implementation and effects of the directive is limited. One clear indication is that the effects vary between different countries in the EU. A preliminary study of the implementation of the public procurement act in Sweden and Denmark for the construction sector has been conducted, with the aim of obtaining knowledge of how and why implementation and effects vary. One distinction is that the number of appeals concerning public procurement is higher in Sweden than in Denmark that might depend on a different implementation of the directive, mainly because Sweden has added amendment to the directive while Denmark has not. The variation of implementing the directive between member countries may have negative impact upon the opportunities of obtaining the best possible service and technical solution in the public procurement process.

This case describes an ongoing initiative in Sweden with the aim of measuring the development of the Swedish infrastructure sector. The reason this case was chose is that it is one, of only a very few, national initiatives with a clear aim of taking an holistic approach to assess the development of one large share of the Swedish construction sector. The purpose of this case is to investigate:– What measures are used– The underlying assumptions for the choice of measureThe case study mainly contributes to WP6 (report 4)National benchmarking (WP6) summaryIn Sweden, apart from the larger Utmärkt Samhällsbyggande a more focused program aimed at improving the competitiveness of the civil engineering part of construction, FIA (Renewal within the civil engineering sector), was launched in December 2003. FIA saw a need to monitor how the civil engineering sector develops, in order to effectively plan and implement development projects.

This survey will not directly measure the effect that FIA has on the civil engineering sector. What is measured is the direction of change for the Swedish civil engineering sector during the years that FIA is active. This knowledge could indirectly be used by FIA to initiate additional studies concerning specific subjects that could guide the civil engineering sector in a desired direction.

Two main issues are of importance in regard to the CREDIT objectives.

1. The difficulty of getting in the data – although this assessment has been initiated, approved and sponsored by the very top management of the two largest infrastructure clients and even though it is written in the procurement guidelines for both of these organisations that the survey hould be carried out jointly, between the client and the supplier consultant or contractor), it has been extremely difficult to get the survey sent in. Now, both of these two organisations have designated personnel to track down projects and make them fill it out, according to guidelines, and send it in.

2. The main performance the parties in the sector are interested to measure and to keep track of is efficiency and productivity. They are largely uninterested of measuring the performance of the product and/or how it affects the end-users. Similar tendencies have been seen in other national initiatives on housing in Sweden. This is to some extent in large contrast to the views and aim of the CREDIT project.

Increased productivity is of societal good and efforts to achieve this should be a relevant task for all businesses. However, the concept of productivity is not clear as to what is to be measured. This becomes a problem especially when statements are made that the development of productivity in the construction industry is not as good as other sectors of industry. It is not clear if this comparison is relevant or even possible to make. This study aims to address and discuss the problem surrounding productivity measurements and comparison of them and is based on literature reviews that address the problem of evaluating productivity, with special focus on construction productivity. The results show that there is no uniform measure for construction productivity that can be used. Different situation calls for different measures. There unique circumstances for various construction activities, such as housing, commercial, industrial, infrastructure etc, that makes comparison of productivity between them virtually impossible. If statements of productivity are made without the knowledge of what the measures really show or is based on, there is a risk that these lead to misleading conclusions. Every study of productivity needs to be critically scrutinised with a high degree of scepticism. Instead of trying to achieve one uniform measure of productivity a set of key performance indicators can be used instead in order to obtain more qualitative facts about the state of the construction industry.

Organizations have boundaries that serve various purposes; for example, differentiating internal operations from external activities and controlling flows of information. Boundaries can however hinder knowledge exchange in inter‐organizational collaboration, leading to less effective outcomes. Empirical results from comparative case studies on how boundaries between organizations in a project can be bridged effectively to support knowledge exchange are presented. End‐user organizations and real estate companies form the subjects of the enquiry. The results show that the depth of involvement of the end‐user organization varies widely and, with it, the use of bridging roles and activities. To identify bridging strategies that can foster productive knowledge exchange in inter‐organizational collaboration, it is necessary to understand contextual aspects of end‐users’ needs to ensure the availability of sufficient competence within, and time for, the project team to perform its duties. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

In order to stay competitive and meet the changing needs of the market, construction firms must develop efficient means of gathering and using knowledge of end-users requirements. This study uses two case studies, to explore the knowledge creation of end-users requirements in project driven firms. The focus of the study is the interface between firm and project. The interface is analyzed from both an autopoietic and cognitive, organizational and societal view. The findings implicates the importance of understanding (a) what kinds of knowledge that is dominated in the different organizations (b) what could be expected in the exchange of data, (c) what action needs to be taken in order to create value of it. The study suggests that considering the organization as an autopoietic system could be useful to understand the organizations responses to a dynamic environment. © 2010 by the Project Management Institute.

Purpose: The two-fold purpose of this paper is identifying areas of difficulty in managing the needs of end-users in the course of the design and delivery of construction projects and suggesting possible solutions. Design/methodology/approach: The focus of the paper is the interaction between three principal parties: end-users, project leader (a selected end-user) and facility planner (a facilities professional). The context is two projects in the public sector: a university and a hospital. The end-users of both are known from the start and participate in the whole process. The paper is based on a case study comprising 12 interviews - seven end-users and five professionals. Findings: The research shows that during the project's design and delivery, communication and attitudinal problems have to be managed alongside the inherent difficulty of understanding end-users' real needs. To help in managing these issues, facility planners relied heavily on pedagogical and behavioural skills, rather than formalised methods as found in the literature. Practical implications: The findings highlight areas of difficulty for managers and planners and how these areas were handled in practice. Suggestions on how to resolve some of the areas are presented and discussed. Originality/value: Much of the research related to managing end-users focuses on how to extract value from the construction process, for instance providing greater flexibility and improved air quality. This paper concentrates on relations between parties who are central to the briefing, design and delivery process © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose

The research presented is the initial part of a project with the aim of increasing the use of end-user requirement through out the construction process. This initial part maps how Swedish real estate companies manage end-user requirements and evaluate the outcome.

Methodological approach

The focus of the study was on methods for capturing and managing end-user requirements and for measuring their satisfaction with the outcome. The study was conducted as a desktop study using literature databases and through interviews with key personnel from 12 different companies; from housing, office and school real estate management to health care facilities management.

Results

The literature review showed that there are a number of different methods that could be used for parts, but that there exist no method that cover the whole process. There are different ways to combine methods for achieving an end-user focus throughout the project. The Swedish real estate companies did, in most cases, measure end-user satisfaction; not in relation to construction projects, but on a general level. Feeding back the knowledge, gained from the evaluations, into construction projects were found difficult and thereby not done. The companies were all interested in new ways of working and thought that it would improve there business.

Status

The paper is based on work made in the spring of 2008 this initial part of the study is almost finished and will be completely finished by the time of full paper submission.

Contribution

The work identifies the problems of keeping an end-user approach through the whole building cycle; from briefing to evaluating the building in use. The paper gives a collection of different methods and indicators and how these could be combined to create greater value for the end-users as well as the state of the art of work methods in practice in Sweden.

This report summarizes 28 case studies addressing the common interest for indicators in case studies in Nordic and Baltic countries and is distributed to different building types

– Benchmarking systems and indicators (4 case studies)

– Offices (7 case studies)

– Housing (8 case studies)

– School and nursery (5 case studies)

– Shopping centres (3 case studies)

– Hospital (1 case studies)

There are some good practices for benchmarking in large scale. At the moment, those are addressing mostly process and investment indicators, and do not yet cover performance indicators. Front-runner enterprises are already recognizing the potential of benchmarking, rating to highest class may increase interest from investors and building owners. Otherwise, some national and international rating systems are available in the market.

Few frontline owners are already using cost and performance indicators in daily operations, such as Senate Properties in Finland and Statsbygg in Norway. Their focus is mostly directed to investment, costs, and energy efficiency. Altogether, it seems that systematic procedures are needed in the industry for evaluating performance and compliance to end result to needs.

There is no commonly agreed or standardized global or European Key Performance Indicator system, but some national and international rating schemes are available. During the past five years a number of rated buildings has grown greatly, and motivation for using those is increasing.

Market signals are also showing paradigm shift towards end user involvement, and standardized methods for involving end users and making continuous monitoring of satisfaction should be agreed. When committing end users, they need help in order to be able to contribute in value adding way. Workplace management in office buildings is used for tailoring spaces better to end user needs. Senate Properties in Finland develops services where spaces are a strategic asset that can help to contribute an organizational change.

National and international indicator systems do not cover all important business matters and companies are developing their own systems. Some contractors have been developing national systems for process performance monitoring. Indoor environment is important in shopping centres, and performance level for spaces is an opportunity to owner to enhance cash flow through rental agreements. In the future, building automation systems could provide real-time monitoring of performance indicators continuously contributing changes automatically to reach desired performance.

Organizations are looking for an indicator system that could help them to measure and enhance performance of buildings. Apparently some indicators are more important than others; regulations for accessibility have become tighter, location is still the core driver, common interest towards operations and reducing annual energy consumptions is growing. There is potential to improve energy efficiency of buildings. Indicator systems should be implemented in tools to encourage usage in projects; those processes are now rather manual. Building Information Models (BIMs) may be suitable tool for managing those more automated way. Based on findings in CREDIT project, offices and shopping centres are most attracting building types in terms of benchmarking.

Enterprises are benchmarking indicators to some extent but systematic process has not yet been developed and a uniform indicator system considering also building performance and value creation is missing. CREDIT project has increased understanding on indicators and transparency and industry needs more research on this matter.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine product innovation as a means of addressing infrastructure shortages in developed economies and to improve the sustainability of infrastructure. The obstacles to product innovation in the road industry are compared between different types of participants in the supply chain to provide guidelines for interventions to improve innovation rates.

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory study uses descriptive data from a large scale survey of the Australian road industry. The three top-rated product innovation obstacles for the following four types of participants are examined: contractors, consultants, suppliers and clients.

Findings

The four groups were found to disagree about the relative importance of the obstacles. Contractors and suppliers ranked “restrictive price-only tender assessment” used by clients as their number one obstacle, while consultants thought there was too much emphasis by the clients on direct costs compared with whole-of-life costs. On the other hand, clients felt suppliers do not do enough thorough testing prior to proposing a new product and disagreed with suppliers about who should carry the risk of new product failure.

Research limitations/implications

The conceptual framework was found to yield novel insights with significant policy implications. The construction-specific contextual determinants that were integrated by the authors into a broad innovation diffusion process proved useful in categorising road product innovation obstacles across the four surveyed supply chain groups – without overlap or omission. The new framework also proved useful in ordering the key obstacles across groups for interpretation and discussion. In disaggregating product obstacles according to groups, these contextual determinants were proven to be mutually exclusive and to represent important focal points in promoting the uptake of product innovation in construction. Although the current study has usefully provided quantitative data concerning construction innovation obstacles, there are limitations due to its reliance on descriptive statistics. Future work by the authors is proposed to analyse the relationships between innovation obstacles and supply chain partners using inferential statistics to further develop and validate these early findings. The current study is an interim step in this work and an important contribution in identifying and addressing firm-level barriers seen to be constraining construction product innovation.

Practical implications

Results suggest there is a need for government clients to carefully consider the differing perspectives across the supply chain when developing strategies to encourage the adoption of mutually-beneficial innovative products on their construction projects. Inclusive focus groups examining the drivers, configuration and benefits of collaborative procurement systems are recommended to reduce innovation obstacles.

Social implications

Society relies on urban infrastructure for daily living and the current study contributes to stretching infrastructure investment dollars and reducing the environmental impact of infrastructure provision.

Originality/value

No previous study has compared the perception of product innovation obstacles across different road industry supply chain partners. This is a significant gap, as differences in opinions across the supply chain need to be understood to develop the shared expectations and the improved relationships required to improve product innovation rates. Product innovation is important because it has been shown to improve efficiency (potentially addressing the road investment gap) and reduce deleterious environmental impacts.

Prefabricated housing is a disruptive innovation struggling to take hold in a traditional complex product system (CoPS). It is quicker to produce and has improved environmental performance compared to traditional housing. CoPS have more dense and complex network connections than commodity industries, making disruptive innovation more difficult. Effective relational capabilities can achieve the coordination necessary to address this challenge. The prefabricated housing industry needs to develop a structure that drives these capabilities. Using a case study methodology, the structure of the industry is examined in two contrasting countries, namely Australia and Sweden, as they represent an early and late stage of industry emergence, respectively. A new framework is proposed for this purpose, enabling a repeatable, orderly and comprehensive disaggregation of industry structure to examine the latent drivers of relational capability. The main empirical contribution is to (1) describe an industry that is yet to be formally recognized by national statistical agencies and (2) show how the adoption of prefabricated housing can be accelerated. The study found that younger industries need a focused industry association with diverse membership to act as an effective system integrator. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

As demand on the construction sector to improve has grown in many countries an increasing understanding of the complexity of the national innovation system has developed. in other industrial sectors, with similar complexity, the concept and the importance of innovation brokers has been identified. This concept is examined here in the context of the Swedish construction sector. A number of organisational types, acting as innovation brokers, have been identified. There are no organisations acting as innovation brokers solemnly and their level of independency can to some extent be questioned. This may not be a problem as such; because of the construction innovation system in Sweden varies from the innovation systems from where the concept of innovation brokers has been identified.

Innovation and development are the backbone of a thriving market economy. It is through innovations of various kinds that nations, industries and companies compete. Many actions in areas internationally and nationally will affect the construction sector. Research into construction innovation has attracted increasing interest. There have been studies ranging from how national research policies support construction innovations to how projects should be organised. One general conclusion is that the level of innovation needs to be improved. There is a need to assess the potential barriers and enablers to achieving a better diffusion of innovations in construction. The overall aim of the research is to increase knowledge of the factors creating successful development, implementation and diffusion of innovations in the construction sector. More specifically, the research aims to understand where the usefulness and weaknesses exist in applying established innovation theory, particularly in regard to diffusion, within the Swedish construction context with the further aim of identifying a suitable basis for creating a shared understanding among stakeholders of the innovation process at work.

A conceptual model for improving the existing situation was developed using contextualised innovation and diffusion theories. The model was tested using the findings in several supporting papers. It was found that actions in line with the conceptual model would enhance the probability of successful diffusion. The research has also investigated national policies, innovation brokerage and (research and) development projects in Sweden and found systemic weakness in the innovation process. The research has also found that tools of analysis not normally associated with the research problem in the construction domain can be used to provide improved insights to policy makers, innovation brokers and development managers. Significant in this regard is the criticality of communication vertically within the supply chain and laterally amongst suppliers with respect to specific innovations, such that diffusion becomes a normal and, therefore, integral feature of construction activity. The tools of analysis identified and adopted in the research can be used directly by policy makers, innovation brokers and development managers to lead to a shared understanding of barriers and enablers to innovation and a basis for continual improvement. In this connection, causal loop diagrams can aid in assessing the type of organisations needed in communication. Shortcomings in communication can, to a certain extent, also be mitigated by innovation brokers.

Innovations in construction materials and components are made without being integrated with other materials and components. It is not even enough with innovations only in construction materials and components. This paper is mainly a literature study of research regarding Complex Product Systems (CoPS) and the construction process. The construction process can be compared with theories concerning another context, as in the case of theories of CoPS. According to theory, one problem in a construction process is that solving single issues is not adequate as the required result is often influenced by other issues, confounding the expected outcome. CoPS focuses on system design, knowledge transfer, cross co-operation interactions and communication, and skills and knowledge. It is necessary that these focus work well to achieve an innovation process. Using traditional forms of cooperation, these areas often pose problems in the construction process. The forms of co-operation, which have greater potential than others, are those that do not separate design from production.

The demands on the construction industry can be met either by fulfilling them by applying existing knowledge and solutions or by creating something new. Trying to meet demands with existing knowledge and solutions is only possible to a certain point, beyond which it is necessary to create something new.

This thesis aims to create a theoretical framework for new forms of co-operation that encourage innovative procedures. The theoretical framework is based on innovation theories.

Findings suggest that motivation to innovate is important. It is mainly the client who can provide the incentives for innovation, while it is mainly a malfunctioning process that breaks them down. The process is very much the result of the forms of co-operation used. In the comparison between the construction process and the innovation process eight aspects are found, which are directly influenced by how the co-operation forms are function, namely, allowing the actors to be involved during an extended period of every project, communication, contractual incentives to encourage innovation, early involvement of the different parties, learning, relationship and co-operation with other parties, risk and reward, and support for the idea of longer relationships between the actors.

The construction process is faced with many challenges, not least dealing with concerns over an adversarial culture, weak suppliers integration and variable quality. With its different levels and numerous participants, the process can be a complex affair. There is a need to understand how the different elements of the process relate to, and effect, each other. The paper presents an analysis of the relationships between certain of these elements, by treating the construction process in a system' context. The particular use of casual loop diagrams to help improve understanding of the interdependences between elements that are considered to the problematic is explored. These diagrams can be used to identify connections of importance when seeking solutions and examples of their use are presented. They show the relationships between problems and those factors that may reinforce or balance one another. The approach advocated in this paper provides tentative steps towards unravelling some of the complexity that obscure the root cause of problems inherent in the process.

Huvudsyftet med rapporten är att göra en kartläggning av nationella innovationsstrategier och en lägesbeskrivning om hur man behandlar innovations frågor i andra länder. Målet är att bidra till en förståelsegrund för hur det fortsatta arbetet med att öka möjligheterna till att en innovativ byggindustri i Sverige ska kunna utvecklas.

Förståelsen för innovationssystem och processer har ökat, där några nya är specifikt intressanta för byggbranschen.

Om man ser resultatet av TG 35 arbete som en bild av hur det förhåller sig i omvärlden ligger Sverige bra till. Flera av de aspekter som lyfts fram som något man arbetar med eller kommer att påbörjat i de undersökta länderna pågår redan, i större eller mindre omfattning, i Sverige.

The construction process is believed to have problems. The causes suspected and their solutions have been put forward, but the problems in the construction process have not disappeared. The primary aim of this article is to show that many of the problems perceived are interlinked in a system and that this is one of the reasons that the solutions have not had the expected impact. A systems approach, with reinforcing and balancing causal loop diagrams, has been used to show this. A secondary aim is to give some recommendations for the improvement of the construction process. The article first investigates how to fulfil the goals of a project and solve the problems perceived of the construction process. The main findings are that the systems approach gives a useful understanding of the interconnections between some of the perceived problems and that in some cases it is not enough to change only the most obvious cause of the problem. The causal loop diagrams clearly show that the reinforcing loops are balanced by balancing loops. These are good as they will hinder negative reinforcing loops from becoming vicious, but bad as they may hinder a positive development of the reinforcing loops.